Ch. 4 - The Marketing Environment

Selling more than 500 thousand pairs of shoes a year at, some will call it "ridiculous prices", you'd assume Senor Christian Louboutin has no need to keep an eye out on the marketing environment. People just crave his brand. Fun fact - Christian Louboutin's target market is not an ethnic group, nor a gender group, his target market is anyone who craves fashion, fashionistas! However, because his brand is so outrageously pricey, Louboutin, was catering only to high and upper middle class fashionistas/woman because woman are the major factor. It wasn't until recently that his strategy began to change.

According to interview by Lauren Collins, Louboutin states that "Self-serious monochrome fashion people are not Louboutin’s target audience. (Shawna Rose, his head of communications in New York, refers to them as “the black-and-camels.”) He gives his designs onomatopoeic names, like Toutenkaboucle, or raunchy ones, like Zigounette (“tiny dick”). Once, he made the straps of a sandal out of tape measures. Another time, he put pockets all over a boot, like a safari jacket, and called it CNN Girl. Occasionally, he goes overboard with the jokes. For example, he designed a shoe with a trompe-l’oeil heel that made its wearer appear to be standing on a curtain tassel. “It was a big failure,” he recalled".

But as we know that basic demographic patterns are influencing marketing mixes. Because the world is ever changing it is impossible for them not to have a strategy. Given that the world population rate is growing slower Louboutin has had to cater to the "basic world" including young girls, who in the end do not make sufficient income to purchase one of his non "black-and camels" shoes including myself. What does this mean? Because someone cannot afford a $25,000 pair of shoes does not mean that they won’t settle for his $1,000 basic black or camel shoe. Remember it's his shiny red sole that steals the fame, it’s the shiny red sole anyone can recognize in a dance floor at a club after a hand full of drinks. Sad but very true! As Louboutin has stated himself "even men are attracted to his shoes. Because men are like bulls and bulls like red". I'd like to call him a genius!

Given the dynamic impact his "red sole" has made on the market, it has made even 10 year old's aware of the luxury it stands for. This red sole is so magical Disney has partnered with Christian Louboutin when they asked him to bring Cinderella's iconic slipper to life. Barbie has also made a doll with Louboutin slippers. Louboutin has also began fabricating shoes catered to men, nail polishes, jewelry, and hand bags. All much cheaper than his shoes, just so that "regular" people can afford the brand.